In Earth’s orbit, where crisis is guaranteed, Habitat is the only strategic space simulation game that uses orbital debris to build the future homes of humanity and where hope for survival relies on the creativity and resourcefulness of the player. Exploration, resource management and physics-based flight and combat come together for the ultimate space survival experience.

In Habitat players must assume the role of ‘Commander’ and lead a team of engineers to gather a variety of debris found in Earth’s orbit, turning it into habitable space stations that can support human life. As players combine different elements of debris, explore space and mine the resources found there, a fully expandable tech tree can be researched. However surviving in a zero gravity universe in the face of constant crisis also relies on the player’s ability to master physics-driven flight simulation as well as turning some of their creations into deadly kinetic orbital weapons that will be needed to take out the enemy when necessary.

Habitat’s unique build-fly-and-fight mechanics work smoothly on gamepads as well as the traditional keyboard and mouse, the Xbox One also gives 4gency unique opportunities to explore additional inputs such as Kinect and SmartGlass.

4gency announced that the latest game feature updates to its upcoming space survival strategy game Habitat, have gone live in Early Access.

In addition to bug fixes and a new tutorial, the v0.4 update gives players access to a host of new and exciting additions to the game such as new enemy ships armed with a vast array of new weaponry such as saws, drills and cannons that can all be stolen for your own use, a new levelling, XP and progression system, a new game feature “Earth Delivery System” where players can order items from Earth, and of course lots more useful junk including a World War II submarine, Sputnik and a classic space capsule!

To celebrate the brave, daring and somewhat insane members of the 509th Orbital Engineering Battalion, the team has also unveiled their “Day in the Life of an Engineer” community campaign to give fans a very special insight into what life as an Engineer in Habitat is like.  As well as unveiling a new piece of artwork, gamers can now read about profiles on several of the tasks an engineer undertakes, watch a brand new trailer that highlights what a day in the life of an engineer is like, as well as read an exclusive interview with Randall T. Dallas, Master Tech Sergeant currently serving in the 509th.

New Features

NOTE: Many aspects of the game have changed. Be sure to take the Basic AND Advanced tutorials to re-familiarize yourself with the new concepts in Habitat. There may even be an achievement or two in it for you!

New XP Leveling and Progression System
Earn, upgrade, and face increasingly challenging foes with the new progression system.
- Completing missions earns XP
- Leveling up grants additional health and resource bonuses to your HQ
- Higher levels face tougher missions

New Enemies
A host of new enemy ships and nano machines are waiting for you.
- Enemy Booster-Enabled Ships: Drills, saws, cannons and more. Powered by booster rockets, they will hunt you down. Destroy them or tear their pieces off to survive.
- New Nanomachines: Vampires that take your resources, Breakers that target your connectors, and Bruisers that slam into your station.
- Moving Stations: Enemy stations are still just as lethal, but now they’re mobile. Beware these floating death platforms.

Higher Health and Physics Damage Changes
Fight longer, stronger, dirtier, with increased health on all items and a change to the damage model.
- Health of all items (except engineers) has been increased by 2x.
- Collision damage now does only 10% of the damage it used to, rather, the physics mass damage acts on the connectors, making explosions less likely but break-offs more likely.
- Weapons (of all kinds) still do roughly the same damage as before, and will lead to explosions much more readily than kinetic attacks.
- If you’re having trouble taking apart enemy stations, use weapons, higher-mass kinetics, or deploy engineers to break apart the connectors.

Untowable Asteroids
The engineers can do a lot, but they can’t do it all. These rocks are just too darn big.
- The map is scattered with asteroid chunks that are too massive for engineers to tow.
- They can be killed with sustained weapons fire, or can be pushed by VERY massive objects under high thrust, or towed with the tether launcher.
- Combat and maneuvering can be difficult around these big objects, but it’s just as dangerous for enemies! Try using asteroids as part of your combat strategy.

Per-Habitat Hotkeys and Command Bridges
Each habitat is now an empire of its own, but at a cost.
- NOTE! You must now use CTRL-# to assign hotkeys. The R key is no longer active.
- Hotkeys now activated per habitat on focus. For instance, if #1 activates your rockets on Habitat A, you can make #1 activate rockets on Habitat B, and they will only fire when B is selected.
- Command Bridge now required to take control of secondary habitats. Order new Command Bridges as needed through the Earth Delivery System (see below).
- You can still build habitats out of standard pieces, but you cannot activate items or assign/use hotkeys until you attach a Command Bridge.
- CTRL-# now adds additional hotkeys to a group, rather than CTRL-SHIFT-#. Hit the same CTRL-# on an assigned item to remove a previously placed hotkey.

Autonomous Engineers
Engineers now help each other and take care of necessary tasks without the need to micromanage.
- Idle engineers will help other engineers tow back junk at a faster speed.
- Idle engineers will seek out and repair damaged pieces of your habitats.
- Warning: Engineers will not auto-help each other attack enemy stations. You must assign each engineer to attack - we aren’t going to send them into the jaws of death for you.

Earth Delivery System
Order up Command Bridges, Rockets, and Weapons from Earth for an Omni cost.
- Three new buttons along the bottom-left for ordering each type of object.
- Ordering allowed only in a limited radius around your HQ. Be aware!
- Each item has an omni cost, with weapons costing the most, then command bridges, then rockets.

Camera Follow Mode
Keep a constant eye on your Habitats while in-flight.
- Hit TAB or click the habitat selector in the top-right to follow the selected habitat, making for a much easier time during long flights.
- Camera will follow the habitat in flight but rotation and zoom remains free.
- Hitting W A S or D to move the camera will “break” the follow and allow you to move the camera freely again.

HAL Tactical Mode with Enemies
The HAL system has been renamed and upgraded to focus on combat.
- Enter the HAL as same as you normally would (ENTER key or click the computer icon in the bottom left)
- “Tactical” mode now shows a simplified view but includes enemies in red.
- Items with settable properties highlighted in blue, click them to set properties such as thrust amount or firing rate.

New Tutorial: Advanced Lessons
A second tutorial is available with advanced lessons about reconfiguring habitats and using engineer swarms.
- Access this tutorial through the “Tutorial” menu item, and choose “Advanced”.
- Learn about breaking and rebuilding connectors, building secondary habitats and calling in deliveries, moving items faster with swarms, and attacking enemy stations.

Screenshot Mode (Experimental Version!)
A beautiful way to capture your best habitats - while blowing up or otherwise.
- Stop time, fly around, set up the perfect shot with a fully-controllable camera.
- Access by pausing the game with ESCAPE, then select Options->Screenshot Mode.
- The UI will be removed, time will be frozen, but you can move your camera to set up the shot you want.
- Controls work differently than normal: Use left-click and drag to rotate your eye in 3D space, right-click and drag to tilt. W and S go forward and backward from the eye point, A and D strafe left and right. Hold SHIFT to slow down your movement for fine-tuning.
- Take a screenshot with Steam by pressing F12 (by default). Be sure to upload your favorites!
- Quit out of Screenshot Mode by pressing ESCAPE again. You may have to press it twice.

Smaller Features and Bugfixes

Brand new info cards when hovering over items. See all the stats on health, mass, resources and more in an easy-to-skim format.
* Connectors now have a color alert when their health is low. Yellow is a connector in danger, red is about to break!
* Engineer creation timer now in the top UI section, no longer on the HQ
* Save games now save hotkey assignments
* Many new sounds, from Ion drives to mission completions, teleports and more.
* Vulcan cannon no longer a self-destroying nightmare. Try it out!
* Offscreen helper arrows to help you find distant mission objectives

New Space Junk
* WWII Submarine - tons of connectors and torpedo launchers make for a powerful platform.
* Sputnik - a piece of history, captured in orbit. Still beeping, after all this time.
* Space Capsule - a relic from the old days. Burnt-up but still usable.